'His soul is better': Father recalls son he lost to heroin overdose

Jun. 12, 2014

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News Journal

MANSFIELD — Derrick Gerhart’s girlfriend had twins, a girl and a boy, in the month before he died.

Gerhart, 31, died April 3 of a heroin overdose. Richland County Coroner Stewart Ryckman made the ruling Tuesday as Gerhart became the ninth person in the county to die of a drug overdose in 2014. Several other cases are pending.

Gerhart is the fifth person this year whose death can be attributed to heroin.

The News Journal and CentralOhio.com are taking an individual look at each overdose case and hope to talk to family members about the victims, in part to put a human face on the rampant drug problem and partly to erase the stigma surrounding the issue.

Darrell Smith, 49, agreed to talk about his son. Twins are common in the family. Smith is a twin himself and had twin boys, in addition to Gerhart. He also has two stepchildren.

Smith said he hoped Gerhart was getting his life together with the birth of twins.

“He was just as happy and as proud as he could be,” Smith said.

Smith said he knew Gerhart had used heroin. It was an issue that kept them apart.

“That’s kind of why he didn’t come around (more), because we didn’t approve of it,” Smith said.

Smith, who works in a scrapyard, has seen people trade scrap for money to get drugs.

“Heroin is so cheap and easy to get a hold of,” he said. “It’s just so accessible.”

It was accessible to Gerhart the night he died. Authorities were called to the Budget Inn on Ashland Road in the early morning hours of April 3. The squad found Gerhart unresponsive.

According to the coroner’s report, Gerhart and his girlfriend had rented a room. The girlfriend told authorities she had seen Gerhart inject himself with heroin in the past. Gerhart, a Mansfield native who lived in Hamilton County, was in Richland County for a court hearing the next day.

Coroner’s Investigator Bob Ball examined the body and found a fresh needle mark. Gerhart’s girlfriend told Ball that Gerhart had used heroin that night. She later told deputies the two had used heroin.

The autopsy also revealed Gerhart had hepatitis.

Smith indirectly learned about his son’s death through Facebook. Gerhart’s girlfriend posted a notice, which Smith’s niece read. She contacted Smith’s wife, who called him at work.

Smith went to the coroner’s office.

“Before Derrick and all this, I didn’t realize (heroin) was such a big problem,” he said.

Ball has a better feel for the drug problem.

“Our numbers are going up,” Ball said of overdoses. “I am hoping it would slow down a little bit, but I don’t think so.”

In Gerhart’s case, problems started when he was a teenager. Smith said his son “was out doing stuff he shouldn’t have been doing.”

Smith and his first wife married young and divorced after about a year. Gerhart’s mother took him and moved away.

Smith said he didn’t have a great deal of contact with his son and ex-wife, who reportedly moved several times. Gerhart did, however, come to live with his father and his stepmother when he was 12 or 13.

The arrangement didn’t last. “He didn’t like the rules,” Smith said.

Gerhart went back with his mother. He would visit his father and his stepmother from time to time.

“I think he just had a lot of demons he had to deal with,” Smith said.

Smith is left to deal with the aftermath.

“I’m doing all right, you know. It’s a shame it happened,” he said. “To me, God’s got a reason. He’s got a plan.”